Lax Factor Lacrosse Podcast

North Carolina's Will Bowen has entered the transfer portal, however I don't think this is a big deal, as the situation is simple and makes total sense when you're not jumping to conclusions. We'll talk about the top returning college lacrosse defensive units that include Army, Georgetown, Providence, Ohio State and Syracuse (per LacrosseBucket.com). We'll talk about the D2 and D3 college lacrosse tournaments possibly nixing teams and dropping participation a bit. We'll get into more, but it's Christmas Eve and there isn't a whole lot going on at the moment.  PLL Merger?  Maybe.  Syracuse covid issues, probably not haha.

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Everyone knows by now. The Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) just absorbed (aka merged with) Major League Lacrosse and lacrosse fans are going bonkers. Some are happy. Some are sad. Some are indifferent. Some are popping hilarious shots at Paul Rabil. In the end, this was inevitable, although I am a touch surprised it's happened so soon. In hindsight though, we all should have seen it coming.

In today's episode we'll talk about what this means for the MLL players. What it means for some of the aging or fringe PLL players. The deepest college lacrosse draft in a decade, maybe ever is about to drop, and there are probably only about 8 to 12 roster spots available for the guys coming out.

College guys I can't wait to see play at the next level? Michael Sowers, Jeff Teat, Mac O'Keefe, JT Giles-Harris to name a few.

MLL guys I hope make the transition and do well, Lyle Thompson, Ryan Lee, Sean Sconone, Bubba Voigt, Bryce Wasserman.

So we'll talk about this PLL/MLL merger in a lot more depth today and let us know in the comments what you think.

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In this new audio only show, we'll explore news as it comes out, and where there isn't a lot of news we'll simply discuss random lacrosse related topics. In todays first episode, we'll talk about InsideLacrosse.com's top 50 list covering the men only, numbers 50 through 41.  Guys we talk about in this episode...

#50, Asher Nolting, Attack, High Point

Let me say, it is a travesty that Jackson Morrill is this low on the list.  He's a former Tewaaraton Finalist, and easily one of the top 10 players in college lacrosse.  Even if you disagree with my "easily" assessment, he's a top 15 guy and I'd be willing to call anyone that would disagree a moron.....to their face.....well unless they were a lot bigger than me.

Despite the season getting trashed, 2020 saw a huge number of freshman lacrosse players contributing for their teams at very high levels. Richmond's Richie Connell broke out and became one of the best young attackman in the land. Dyson Williams led Duke in scoring as a rookie which is saying something. Josh Zawada did the same for Michigan putting up 32 points in the shortened season.

Other guys I'm hyped up about include Pat Kavanaugh (Notre Dame), Payton Cormier (UVA), Michael Long (Cornell), Christian Mule (Lehigh) and there are a bunch more, so read on.

All in all, 2020 has been a crappy year, but we have lots and lots of reasons to be excited that 2021 will be better, and we can fully expect the 20 or so guys I'm about to talk about in this episode will all have far better 2021 seasons.

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Owen Hiltz is the real deal and Syracuse is lucky to have him. I've had him pegged wrong for a while now thinking he was a one-dimensional lefty finisher. He's not that at all. He's an all-around talent that can dodge, finish and feed, a true triple threat. The Culver Academy product should see quite a bit of time at Syracuse in the spring of 2021.

Terry Foy also asked a great question over the Thanksgiving holiday... If you are in a 2-3-1 set, how many players do you have behind GLE?  I would say you have one, but I've proven to be an oddball (and wrong) before.

We'll also answer some mailbag questions. What are Maryland's chances of winning it all and can the Whipsnakes 3-Peat in the PLL?

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In our first LaxFactor Mailbag Adam Heller asked the question, who will have the best defense and goalie in 2021, and I think the answer to that is easy...The Army Black Knights.

Army returns a wealth of talent on the defensive side of the ball including 3rd Team All American goaltender Wyatt Schulper as well as 3rd Team All American close defender Marcus Hudgins. Both players were having outstanding seasons prior to 2020 getting nuked by the virus that shall not be named.

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In this episode we'll talk about Dox Aitken making it official, he's not returning to Virginia in the spring. That's going to sting the cavs a bit. We'll do a quick player profile of Brendan Grimes, Hopkins incoming stud and how I think he'll contribute right away.  We'll talk a bit about Syracuse and how their fall ball rapped up, including how Desko implied we may see quite a bit of Owen Hiltz this spring. I'll discuss some of the best players that DID NOT win the Tewaaraton award, the main one, Connor Fields and a lot more.

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Lots of lacrosse news to talk about in todays episode, including, Payton Cormier decided to stay put at UVA and we discuss what that starting attack for the Cavs may look like. There is a new NLL team that was just announced, the Panther City Lacrosse Club, and their logo is SICK as they are rocking purple and red as their colors. Dan Witmer blogged about his favorite (and least favorite Upstate New York lacrosse facilities) so we'll talk about that a bit as well as I tend to agree with him. We will also talk about what the 2021 lacrosse season may look like as the Ivy just announced spring sports can't start until March and Hampton is folding all spring sports in 2021.

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One of Virginia's up and coming stars, Payton Cormier has entered the transfer portal according to Terry Foy of Inside Lacrosse. Cormier put up 12 goals and 7 assists over six games in the 2020 season. He put up 3 goals in his first collegiate action and 5 points (4g, 1a) in a UVA win over High Point. Lars Tiffany is hopeful he will decide to stay.

I was also surprised to see that Jonathan Donville of Cornell was in the portal.  It's possible he too stays put, especially considering Jeff Teat gets to stay and play a 5th season at Cornell, a rarity in the Ivy that Cornell seems to like acting on.

The PLL reversible pinnies dropped this week and fans are ANGRY. Coming in at $80, a huge majority of the social media comments originating from the announcement posts were very, very negative.  I think a $50 to $60 price point would have been applauded, and it would have resulted in more jerseys out there in circulation promoting their league.  I get it, you need to make money, and you need to do so in an efficient way.  Maybe pricing them at $80 was part of that strategy.  Or maybe they just made a mistake?  We'll see.

Lacrosse Bucket had two good articles out that I'll talk about, one covering what a post-Sowers Princeton may look like, and another proclaiming Penn State the team to beat in the B1G.  I'll give you my take.

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Bennan O’Neill is probably one of the most hyped recruits there has been over the last decade. I can’t remember this much hype surrounding a prospect and their highlight reel (O’Neill’s has 125,000+ views) since Tehoka Nanticoke.

I purposely try not to put too much stock in high school kids highlight cuts for a good reason… It’s hard to tell who’s going to live up to the hype, and who’s not. The jump from high school lacrosse, even high end high school lacrosse, to D1 is tough to adjust to and not every top prospect ends up being a top 10 player by their senior year.

Let this be me going on record to state that I believe the Brennan O’Neill hype to be the TRUTH. I believe it so much, I’m going to start including the hashtag along with it and will simply start referring to him as #TheTruth.

I could go on and on but I'll save you (you can read more here https://www.laxfactor.com/2020/10/brennan-oneill-is-going-to-be-a-problem/).  I don't get excited about high school kids all that often as it pertains to lacrosse, but when I do, it's because I legit believe they are going to be nasty at the next level.

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